1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to electronic circuits and systems. More particularly, the present invention relates to communications systems for transmission of digital data.
2. Background Art
Businesses tend to collect customer satisfaction feedback in a haphazard manner where only a small unrepresentative fraction of the customer base actually ends up providing feedback. Traditional feedback collection methods such as pen and paper surveys, mail or Internet forms, and interviews with service staff often inconvenience busy customers with little time to spare, erecting a high barrier to voluntary participation. Although businesses often attach incentives for providing feedback, such as chances to win a prize or discounts, these incentives are often insufficient to persuade an average customer to spend the time required to provide meaningful feedback. Additionally, because particularly angry or happy customers might be highly motivated to provide feedback, responses might skew towards the extremes. Meanwhile, the vast majority of customers remain quiet and indifferent, deterred by the high effort barrier.
Running such traditional feedback programs can also become prohibitively expensive for businesses, particularly where there are multiple aspects of the business needing feedback. The labor costs of maintaining the feedback programs may outstrip any benefits the feedback might provide. Often, the received feedback needs to be manually parsed, for example by counting and tallying surveys. Additional customer service staff may also need to be hired to operate the feedback programs. These labor requirements consume resources that may be better directed towards other aspects of the business.
As a result of the time and effort expenditures required for providing feedback, many customer responses, if provided at all, will be delayed until long after the customer interacts with the subject matter of the feedback. Parsing the feedback delays the results even further. Intervening events, the passage of time, and fleeting whimsy may cloud customer recollection, causing misattributed and inaccurate feedback. Additionally, the belated feedback might be provided past the time window when ameliorating measures are available and feasible to implement.
Accordingly, there is a need to overcome the drawbacks and deficiencies in the art by providing a way to collect customer satisfaction feedback quickly, unobtrusively, and without requiring undue effort and inconvenience from customers.